Shellfish Laksa

Laksa is a Malaysian soup made with noodles and coconut milk, it is filling and delicous. You can vary the ingredients in the soup to your own taste eg. adding bok choy or usining chicken instead or with seafood.

Portions: 4 Portions as a main or 6 as a starter

Cooking: 15 minutes

Ingredients

250g rice stick noodles

4 spring onions, finley chopped

2 large red chillies. chopped

100g beans sprouts

4 thin slices of lime

3 tbsp corriander, finley chopped

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

2 tsp. cumin, ground

2 tsp. corriander, ground

1½ tbsp. red curry paste

500ml coconut milk

500ml water or fish stock

1 tbsp Thai fish sauce

1tbsp soy sauce

Seafood

24 mussels

12 tiger prawns, peeled

8 scallops, roes removed

100g cod, chopped into 1cm cubes

Method

To prepare the Laksa: cook the noodles in boiling salted water until it is just cooked. Drain well, divide between 4 deep Laksa bowls and place the spring onions, corriander, chilli, bean sprouts and lime on top.

Mussels: Steam the mussels until just opened and remove most of them from their shells (leave 8-12 in their shell). Any mussels that don't open discard.

To make the soup: in a heavy saucepan pour a little peanut oil and fry the garlic, cumin, corriander powder and red curry paste over a low heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the coconut milk, water or stock, soy sauce, fish sauce, salt and pepper, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and add the mussels, prawns, cod and scallops and allow to simmer for 2-4 minutes.

To serve:Distribute the seafood among the bowls and pour over the hot soup and set aside for 1 minute for the flavours to infuse. Serve